Container and locking device

ABSTRACT

A storage box for storage of objects in a suitable place with restriction of accessibility and the possibility of marking, the storage box comprising a main body, a drawer with a front panel and a lock device. The drawer is slidingly placed in the main body through an opening in one of the main body&#39;s surfaces, the lock device is installed on one of the main body&#39;s surfaces or on the front panel of the drawer, the lock device in the locked position connects the drawer to the main body and in the released position disengages the connection between the drawer and the main body. The lock device consists of a substantially cylindrical housing with an enlarged end piece, the enlarged end piece forms a seat shaped in a complementary manner to the underside of a handle, the handle operates a shaft provided in the housing, the shaft is movable in its longitudinal direction and can rotate in the housing. The lock device may be installed on the front panel of the drawer and engages with a lug mounted on the inside of one of the main body&#39;s surfaces.

This application is the national phase under 35 U.S.C. §371 of PCTInternational Application No. PCT/NO99/00288 which has an Internationalfiling date of Sep. 17, 1999, which designated the United States ofAmerica.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a storage box and a lock devicetherefor, which storage box can thereby be used for storing objectswhose accessibility requires to be restricted. This may apply, forexample, to storage of medicines and chemicals, which have to be keptinaccessible to children. At the same time objects in the storage boxcan be placed together in a suitable storage location, for example in arefrigerator, a dark room or the like.

DESCRIPTION OF THE BACKGROUND ART

It is a well-known problem in the home, at the place of work or in aninstitution that there are some objects which ought to be storedseparately in a location suited to the purpose and preferably withrestricted accessibility while at the same time it may be important toretrieve them quickly. This is often solved by attempting to conceal theobjects concerned, or attempting to restrict their accessibility byplacing them in a location where they are not accessible to everyone,preferably a location where an effort has to be made to get hold ofthem. Some objects, such as medicines and chemicals, however, often needspecial treatment and storage, since they may be particularlylight-sensitive or require to be stored in a cold environment. It istherefore not very practical and often ill-advised to choose a storageplace based only on considerations of storage environment oraccessibility as this may have unfortunate consequences. A medicinecontainer which has to be kept cold is naturally placed in arefrigerator or the like. Such a location, however, is accessible tomost people and children, for example, also have access to arefrigerator and other cold rooms. It is a highly unfortunatecombination to have medicines or chemicals accessible to children, andparticularly in a storage place where children expect to find food orother harmless substances which can be eaten or drunk.

Thus in the storage of medicines and chemicals there is already aconflict at a basic level between the requirements which have to betaken into consideration with regard to the characteristics of thestorage place, and at the same time requirements regarding safety andaccessibility for those who are present.

Another well-known problem is how to to keep different substances intheir proper place simultaneously, such as, for example, medicines,since they often come in small amounts and may be vital for a user whohas to find them at short notice. This makes it necessary for suchsubstances to be stored in a place suited to the purpose, in a mannerwhich makes them easy to find and preferably in a specifically organizedsystem. If the previously mentioned conditions with regard to restrictedaccessibility and requirements as to a suitable storage place are to befulfilled, the result will often be that an arbitrary and unsuitablelocation is chosen for reasons of ease of retrieval. Here too parallelscan be drawn with the example of storage of medicines in a refrigeratoror in another cold place, where several different people usually availthemselves of the contents. This applies not only in connection withfamilies, but also in companies, institutions and the like where thereis common storage of, for example, food and drink in a refrigerator orin other suitable places. It is obvious that the more people who areinvolved in helping themselves to the contents, as well as replenishingthe contents of such a place, the more difficult it is to ensure ease ofretrieval for individuals, and particularly in the case of small itemswhich are stored together with a large amount of other substances.

There are therefore three different requirements which have to beconsidered when storing, for example, medicines. They should be storedin a place suited to the purpose, they should be stored with suitable,preferably restricted accessibility, and they should be stored in amanner which ensures ease of retrieval within a desired time frame. Thismay apply, e.g., to the storage of medicines in a refrigerator wherethey are placed together with other foodstuffs and where there is agreat risk that, e.g., children, weak-sighted or senile people may makea mistake about the contents of the refrigerator and help themselves tomedicines instead of other substances in the refrigerator, or take thewrong medicine belonging to another person.

In previously known solutions for meeting these requirements andovercoming the above-mentioned problems, the usual method has been tocollect the substances concerned in a separate area of, e.g., therefrigerator. This improves ease of retrieval, and if the area of therefrigerator in which this is stored is of such a nature that it can beclosed or concealed, a restricted or controlled accessibility is therebyachieved. However, it is not possible to mark such a place in a suitablemanner if it is a part of the natural refrigerator fittings or is simplyonly an “appointed” place in the refrigerator where it is agreed thatsuch substances should be stored. Another solution for restrictingaccessibility is to store the individual medicine or the like in acontainer which is equipped by the medicine producer with anaccessibility restricting means, for example in the form of a lid or thelike which has to be handled in a special way in order to be opened. Inthis case, however, a situation is achieved where each individualmedicine is stored in separate units, which have to be locatedseparately in a suitable storage place. This can result in medicinesbeing put in the wrong place or removed by mistake, thereby reducing theease of retrieval, which may be a critical factor for persons whoselives are dependent on certain medicines.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Thus it is the object of the present invention to provide a storage boxwhich meets the above-mentioned requirements, and which overcomes theabove-mentioned problems. The box according to the invention ensuresthat those substances which require to be stored are kept collectivelyin a manner which permits them to be placed together in a suitablelocation, for example in a refrigerator, in addition to which thestorage box can be provided with a lock mechanism which permitsparticularly restricted access to the contents thereof.

The inventive concept in the present invention further comprises a lockdevice which forms part of a preferred embodiment of the lock devicewhich is employed in connection with the said storage box.

Further scope of applicability of the present invention will becomeapparent from the detailed description given hereinafter. However, itshould be understood that the detailed description and specificexamples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, aregiven by way of illustration only, since various changes andmodifications within the spirit and of the scope of the invention willbecome apparent to those skilled in the art from this detaileddescription.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention will now be described in more detail in relation to thefigures, which are given by way of illustration only, and thus are notlimitative of the present invention, in which:

FIG. 1 is a sectional view from the side illustrating the storage box inits entirety consisting of a drawer and a main body;

FIG. 2 is a sectional view from the side of the drawer which is disposedinside the main body of the storage box;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view from the side of the main body whichconstitutes the external unit of the storage box;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view from the front of the main body in thestorage box with the drawer;

FIG. 5 is a sectional view from the side of the lock mechanism which canbe employed in the storage box;

FIG. 6a is a sectional view from the side of the handle in the lockmechanism as illustrated in FIG. 5;

FIGS. 6b and c are views from the side and from above respectively ofthe handle which is employed in the lock mechanism in FIG. 5;

FIGS. 7a and b are views from above and from the side respectively of anembodiment of the front housing in the lock mechanism in FIG. 5; and

FIG. 7c is a sectional view from the side of an embodiment of the fronthousing in the lock mechanism in FIG. 5.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

FIG. 1 illustrates a storage box according to the present invention,consisting of the two main elements, an external housing or main body 2and a drawer 3, which is placed movably in and out of the main body 2through an open side, or thereto suited opening in one of the sides ofthe main body 2. As illustrated in FIG. 2, the drawer 3 consists of afront piece 4 which is adapted in size to cover the opening in the mainbody 2, with the result that when the drawer 3 is pushed into the mainbody 2, the front piece 4 covers the whole or substantially the wholeopening in the main body 2. The drawer 3 further has a bottom 5, a rearboundary 6 and side walls upwardly projecting from the bottom 5, whichside walls are upwardly limited by an upper edge 8. In the areaimmediately behind the front piece 4, the upper limiting edge 8 may begiven a rounding 12. In FIG. 2 the upper limiting edge 8 is illustratedmounted under the storage box's centre line 7, but it may be mounted atany level between the bottom and the upper part of the front piece 4,thus providing a drawer with everything from a flat bottom withoutlateral limiting edges 11 to a drawer with full height lateral limitingedges. If the lateral limiting edge 11 has full height it will not bepossible to have a rounding 12 between the upper limiting edge 8 and thefront piece 4. In addition the drawer 3 is mounted with a device 9 on atleast one of the sides, but preferably on both sides of the drawer 3,which device 9 engages with a similar, and possibly oppositely formeddevice 23 with a similar location in the main body 2. The device 9 may,for example, be a mounted slide bar, a milled track for engagement witha slide bar 23 mounted in the main body 2, or similar elements. The usemay be envisaged here of countless solutions which otherwise form partof the standard state of the art.

On the whole or parts of one or more sides along the outer edge of thefront piece of the drawer 3, in FIG. 2 there is mounted a flange formeeting or engaging with a flange 21 which is mounted on correspondingareas of the opening 24 in the main body 2. In FIG. 3 the opening 24 andthe flange 21 in the main body 2 are illustrated located between themain body's 2 bottom 22 and top 20. The main body may assume a number ofdifferent shapes, but in a preferred embodiment it is a rectangular boxwith a bottom panel 22, top panel 20, side walls 26, a rear panel 25 anda front area with an opening 24. The opening 24 may comprise the wholeor parts of the front area, and the opening may be provided on one ormore sides with a sealing strip or a device which is designed to providea sealing or locking meeting with the front piece 4 on the drawer 3.When mounting the drawer 3 in the main body 2 the two elements 2, 3 canhave a coincident centre line 7 and the guide devices 23, 9 on the mainbody and the drawer respectively can be mounted at a specific distancerelative to the coincident centre line 7.

The flanges 10, 21 can be provided with a sealing strip or openings inorder to prevent any condensation which may arise on the inside of thestorage box.

The storage box 1 is assembled by pushing the drawer 4 into the mainbody 2 until the flange 10 on the front piece 4 on the drawer 3 meetsand/or engages with the flange 21 or on the seal provided thereonlocated along the whole or parts of the opening 24 in the main body 2.As illustrated in FIG. 2 the drawer 3 may be designed so that thelateral limiting edges 11 may have a height from bottom level 5 which isupwardly limited by an upper edge 8. This upper edge 8 may be located,for example, under the centre line 7, which gives the drawer 3 a form inwhich the area where medicines or other objects are stored is low inheight and is thereby easily accessible and well-organized for a user.The drawer's 3 front piece 4 is designed in such a manner that it issuitable for attaching a label or other form of information-providingdevice which shows the contents of the storage box 1. It will also bepossible to place name tags, for example, on the front piece 4 if thestorage box 1 is used in institutions, hospitals or the like whereseveral people wish to keep their storage boxes in the same place, e.g.in the same cold room or refrigerator. By this means it is ensured thateach person who keeps his medication or the like in this place hasaccess only to the correct medication.

On the front piece 4 there may also be provided a handle or the likewhich makes it easier for a user to pull the drawer 3 out of the mainbody 2 for use. A lock device 30 may also be provided in connection withthe front piece 4, thus offering the possibility of restricting accessand accessibility or direct locking of the storage box 1. In a preferredembodiment of the object of the application a lock device is provided inthe front panel 4 of the drawer. Several different forms of lockmechanisms may be envisaged here, both with and without a key, but theircommon feature is that they represent an restriction of accessibility,thus preventing inadvertent misapplication of the contents of the box.It may be envisaged that the lock mechanism 30 can also be provided onother surfaces of the storage box, for example on the rear surface 25 ofthe main body 2, where the lock mechanism 30 can engage with the rearboundary 6 on the drawer 3, thereby checking the drawer 3 and preventingit from being pulled out of the main body 2.

A part of the inventive concept in the present application furtherrelates to a preferred form of a lock device 30 which is illustrated inFIG. 5, this being primarily intended for use without any kind of key,even though the lock device can easily be used with a key. The lockdevice 30 is designed so as to constitute an restriction ofaccessibility which primarily prevents children from inadvertentlygaining access to the contents of the storage box 1. The lock device 30substantially consists of a front housing 31 and a rear housing 32,which are connected when the lock device is assembled. The lock device30 further consists of an internally through-going shaft 33 with one ormore lugs 40 arranged along the circumference, which shaft 33 is furtherconnected to a handle 35. Around the shaft 33 there is further provideda rotatable bolt 34 which has openings or recesses along thecircumference of the shaft, which openings or recesses are designed in amanner corresponding to the lugs 40 on the shaft, with the result thatwhen the handle is lifted from the seat 39 in the correct rotatingposition where the openings in the bolt 34 coincide with the lugs 40 onthe shaft 33, a connection is formed where the handle 35 via the shaft33 and the lugs 40 in engagement with the openings or recesses in thebolt 40 can move the bolt 40. The handle 35 is kept affixed to the shaft33 via a screw 38 mounted in a recess in the upper part of the handle35. Furthermore, in the front housing 31, round the shaft 33, there ismounted a compression spring 36, and in the rear housing 32 round thelower part of the shaft 33 there is mounted a torsion spring 37. Whenthe lock device 30 is operated the handle 35 rotates freely in its seat39 in the front housing 31, and for a child or the like it is notpossible to open the lock device 30 by merely turning the handle.However, when the handle 35 is located in specific positions where thelugs 40 on the shaft coincide with the openings in the bolt, it ispossible to pull the handle 35 out against the bias force of thecompression spring 36. The lugs on the shaft 33 are then brought intoengagement with the bolt 34, and by subsequently turning the handle 35further it will be possible to move the bolt 34 which is engaged withthe lug 13 on the main body 2 or the drawer 3, thereby releasing thelock device 30 and enabling the drawer 3 to be withdrawn from the mainbody 2. The compression spring 36 automatically retracts the handle 35and the shaft 33 into the rear and front housings, 32 and 31respectively, by means of its bias force. The handle 35 is given aresistance by the rotation of the torsion spring 37, which is mounted inthe lower part of the rear housing 32. The bolt 34 may be designed insuch a manner that it engages with a recess, a pin or the like 13 whichis arranged in a suitable location on the inside of the main body 2, oron the drawer element 3, for an engagement between the bolt 34 and thelug 13 which provides a locking function. If the lock device 30 isinstalled in the upper part of the front piece 4 on the drawer 3, thelug 13 may be mounted on the inside of the top panel 20 in the main body2, in a manner which permits locking engagement between the bolt 34 andthe lug 13 when the drawer 3 is pushed completely into the main body 2.Alternatively, both the lock device 30 and the lug 13 may be installedin another location in the storage box. The bolt 34 may engage, forexample, with the rear boundary 6 on the drawer 3, and in this case itis necessary for the lock device 30 to be installed on the rear panel25, or in the rear position of the lateral boundary 26 of the main body2. The position of the lock device 30 is not illustrated in FIGS. 1-4since the lock device 30 may be provided in so many different positionsin the storage box 1. A preferred embodiment, however, is for the lockdevice 30 to be installed in the front panel 4, engaging with a lug 13on the inside of the upper panel 20 of the main body 2.

In a further embodiment the shaft may be provided with openings orrecesses and the bolt may be provided with lugs.

The handle 35 is further illustrated in FIGS. 6a-6 c and in a view fromabove in FIG. 6c it is shown that the handle 35 may be of an oblongshape. The handle 35, however, may be designed in a number of otherways, and may also be circular, thus covering the entire seat 39 in thefront housing 31. In FIGS. 6a-6 c there is illustrated a recess in whichit is envisaged that a screw 38 might be mounted which connects thehandle 35 with the shaft 33 in the interior of the lock device 30. Afurther embodiment of the front housing 31 is illustrated in FIGS. 7a-7c. At one end of the housing there is provided a seat 39 whose shape iscomplementary to the underside of the handle 35. In this seat 39 theremay also be provided raised portions 41, which indicate the positions inwhich the handle 35 must be in order to be able to release the lockmechanism 30. When the handle 35 is rotated about the shaft 33 theunderside of the handle will abut against and be moved over the lugs 41and when the centre line of the handle 35 is approximately parallel tothe centre line of a single or several diametrically oppositely locatedlugs 41, this indicates that the handle 35 is in a position to be ableto release the lock device 30. The compression spring 36 in the fronthousing 31 offers a resistance, with the result that the handle 35 doesnot move unimpeded over the lugs 41, but it will result in a turningresistance when the handle 35 meets the lugs 41. In a preferredembodiment it is possible to pull the handle 35 with the shaft 33 somedistance further out from the seat 39 when the handle 35 is corrrectlypositioned relative to the lugs 41. This causes the shaft 33 to connectthe bolt 34 and the handle 35, and a further turning of the handle 35pulls along the bolt 34, whereupon the lock device 30 disengages with,for example, the lug 13. This is a sequence of events which will bedifficult to perform, for example for a child or a person with littleskill and therefore introduces a restriction of accessibility to thestorage box's inventive concept. Several alternatives can be envisaged,however, with regard to the position of the handle 35 relative to theseat 39, and instead of the use of lugs 41 to indicate the correctposition of the handle 35 relative to the seat 39, marking on the edgeof the seat 39 and the handle 35 can be envisaged. When the marks are inalignment or almost in alignment the handle is in the correct positionto be able to release the lock mechanism. This, however, will provide alesser degree of restriction of accessibility, since it will be easierfor children and unskilled people to guess the correct position of thehandle 35 if so-called alignment marks are placed on the seat and thehandle 35. If the handle 35 is provided with lugs, an additional factoris introduced which contributes to restriction of accessibility.

The storage box 1 may further be provided in a material which isrelatively stable with regard to temperature and which permits thestorage of, for example, medicines in a refrigerator. In the storage box1 there may be provided small openings in order to prevent condensationon the inside of the storage box, which is a common problem when astorage box has been exposed to the ambient temperature and then closed,whereupon it is cooled in a cold room or refrigerator in a sealedcondition. These ventilation openings may be provided on one or more ofthe main body's surfaces or in the drawer, particularly the front panelthereof.

The figures illustrate the composition of a possible embodiment of thestorage box 1 and the lock device 30, but these should not be regardedas limiting in relation to the storage box's dimensions, design orposition of the lock device 30. The objects in the present invention canthereby be employed in any situation as a storage box for food,medicines or other substances where one wishes to obtain the advantagesoffered by the storage box 1, in the form of restriction ofaccessibility, collective storage, a high degree of retrievability, andthe possibility of affixing labels or another information-providingdevice which ensures that the contents are not misused. The storage box1 according to the present invention is therefore only limited by thefollowing claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A lock device for use with a storage boxcomprising a substantially rectangular main body with at least one openside, a drawer with a side covering the opening in a closed positionwhere the lock device is placed on the main body or the drawer, andwhere the opposite of the main body or the drawer is fitted with a pin,a bolt in the lock device interacts with the pin, the lock devicefurther includes a cylindrical housing with an enlarged end piece and ahandle, the enlarged end piece forms a seat shaped in a complementarymanner to an underside of the handle, the handle operates a shaftmounted centrally in the housing, the shaft is movable in a longitudinaldirection against one or more springs and is rotatable in the housingabout the longitudinal axis, the shaft has at least one raised lugthereon, the at least one lug being engagable with openings in the bolt,the at least one lug of the shaft being engaged with the bolt when thehandle with the shaft is pulled from the seat and when the handle withthe shaft is in a correct position relative to the openings in the boltwhereby the bolt is rotatable via the shaft and handle.
 2. The lockdevice according to claim 1, further comprising a housing for the lockdevice, the housing having a front housing and a rear housing.
 3. Thelock device according to claim 2, wherein the one or more springsincludes at least a torsion spring, the torsion spring being around theshaft in the rear housing and providing twisting resistance when thehandle is turned.
 4. The lock device according to claim 2, wherein theone or more springs includes at least a compression spring, thecompression spring being around the shaft in the front housing andproviding resistance when the handle is pulled from the seat in order tooperate the lock device, the compression spring returns the handle tocontact with the seat when the handle is released by a user.
 5. The lockdevice according to claim 2, wherein the rear housing has an openingover an angular section of thereof in order to restrict rotation of thebolt together with the shaft.
 6. The lock device according to claim 1,wherein the one more springs includes at least a torsion spring, thetorsion spring being around the shaft and providing twisting resistancewhen the handle is turned.
 7. The lock device according to claim 1,wherein the one or more springs includes at least a compression spring,the compression spring being around the shaft and providing resistancewhen the handle is pulled from the seat in order to operate the lockdevice, the compression spring returns the handle to contact with theseat when the handle is released by a user.